OPEN READING ROOM
CURATED READING LISTS
Ann Street Gallery’s Open Reading Room is a space within the Gallery that is accessible during gallery hours in which the public can browse our Curated Reading Lists, the books they reference, and other artist books, ephemera, and cultural
media related to our exhibitions and programming.
Our Curated Reading Lists include books chosen by featured artists and cultural workers to inform and lend context to their work and the Gallery's exhibitions. Each reading list includes information about the exhibition it accompanies and the curator of the list, a list of selected titles, an introduction to the collection, and an annotation for each title. Lists can be viewed or downloaded on the right.
Ann Street Gallery is pleased to partner with Golden Hour Books to offer titles from the Gallery's Curated Reading Lists. Titles can be purchased in-person at 181 Broadway, Newburgh while supplies last, or ordered through Golden Hour’s online store.
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Our Curated Reading Lists include books chosen by featured artists and cultural workers to inform and lend context to their work and the Gallery's exhibitions. Each reading list includes information about the exhibition it accompanies and the curator of the list, a list of selected titles, an introduction to the collection, and an annotation for each title. Lists can be viewed or downloaded on the right.
Ann Street Gallery is pleased to partner with Golden Hour Books to offer titles from the Gallery's Curated Reading Lists. Titles can be purchased in-person at 181 Broadway, Newburgh while supplies last, or ordered through Golden Hour’s online store.
OPEN READING ROOM
Curated Reading List 001
Exploring Cultural Aesthetics
by Jonette O’Kelley Miller
This is by no means an exhaustive list. It hopefully will plant seeds for continued research and study into understanding the expansiveness and beauty of diverse aesthetic points of view.
While it’s recognized that the traditional canon of art history is grounded in an exclusive European aesthetic; it's critical to also recognize the impact our own habitus has on what we consider to be beautiful, correct and of value.
My curated list features a variety of books providing introduction into the various concepts used to define art history, the concept of beauty and the defining of what is art. Readers are invited to take a deeper dive into the history of and diverse work by African Diasporan artists; contemporary artistic perspectives found in sculpture, and on religious themes; Latin American and Native American artists from the 20th century; and a revisiting of how our socio-cultural mores have influenced how we see and the authority we’ve given to museums in their appropriation of BIPOC cultural artifacts.
Curated Reading List 001
Exploring Cultural Aesthetics
by Jonette O’Kelley Miller
This is by no means an exhaustive list. It hopefully will plant seeds for continued research and study into understanding the expansiveness and beauty of diverse aesthetic points of view.
While it’s recognized that the traditional canon of art history is grounded in an exclusive European aesthetic; it's critical to also recognize the impact our own habitus has on what we consider to be beautiful, correct and of value.
My curated list features a variety of books providing introduction into the various concepts used to define art history, the concept of beauty and the defining of what is art. Readers are invited to take a deeper dive into the history of and diverse work by African Diasporan artists; contemporary artistic perspectives found in sculpture, and on religious themes; Latin American and Native American artists from the 20th century; and a revisiting of how our socio-cultural mores have influenced how we see and the authority we’ve given to museums in their appropriation of BIPOC cultural artifacts.
Reading List Titles:
Art on My Mind: Visual Politics
by bell hooks
Publisher: New York: The New Press, 1995
ISBN: 978-1-56584-263-2
Sensible Objects: Colonialism, Museums and Material Culture edited by Elizabeth Edwards, Chris Gosden, and Ruth B. Phillips
Publisher: New York, GB: Berg, 2006
ISBN: 978-1-84520-324-5 (pbk.)
African American Art And Artists (Revised and Expanded Edition)
by Samella Lewis
Publisher: CA: University of California Press, 1990
ISBN: 0-520-23935-0 (pbk.)
Art + Religion in the 21st Century
by Aaron Rosen
Publisher: UK, Thames and Hudson, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-500-23931-3
The Afro-American Tradition in Decorative Arts
by John Michael Vlach
Publisher: Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press, 1990
ISBN: 0-8203-1233-9 (pbk)
Creating Their Own Image: The History of African American Women Artists
by Lisa E. Farrington
Publisher: New York: Oxford University Press, 2011
ISBN: 9780199767601
Art History: A critical Introduction to its methods
by Michael Hatt and Charlotte Klonk
Publisher: UK, Manchester University Press, 2006
ISBN: 978-0-7190-6959-8 (pbk.)
Sculpture Today
by Judith Collins
Publisher: New York: Phaidon Press, 2014
ISBN: 9780714857633
Native American Art In the Twentieth Century
edited by W. Jackson Rushing, III
Publisher: New York: Routledge, 1999
ISBN: 13:978-0-415-13748-5 (pbk.)
Latin American Artists of the Twentieth Century
edited by Waldo Rasmussen, Fatima Bercht, and Elizabeth Ferrer
Publisher: New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.,1993
ISBN: 0-8109-6121-0
Radiance From the Waters
by Sylvia Ardyn Boone
Publisher: Yale University Press,1990
ISBN: 9780300048612
Art on My Mind: Visual Politics
by bell hooks
Publisher: New York: The New Press, 1995
ISBN: 978-1-56584-263-2
Sensible Objects: Colonialism, Museums and Material Culture edited by Elizabeth Edwards, Chris Gosden, and Ruth B. Phillips
Publisher: New York, GB: Berg, 2006
ISBN: 978-1-84520-324-5 (pbk.)
African American Art And Artists (Revised and Expanded Edition)
by Samella Lewis
Publisher: CA: University of California Press, 1990
ISBN: 0-520-23935-0 (pbk.)
Art + Religion in the 21st Century
by Aaron Rosen
Publisher: UK, Thames and Hudson, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-500-23931-3
The Afro-American Tradition in Decorative Arts
by John Michael Vlach
Publisher: Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press, 1990
ISBN: 0-8203-1233-9 (pbk)
Creating Their Own Image: The History of African American Women Artists
by Lisa E. Farrington
Publisher: New York: Oxford University Press, 2011
ISBN: 9780199767601
Art History: A critical Introduction to its methods
by Michael Hatt and Charlotte Klonk
Publisher: UK, Manchester University Press, 2006
ISBN: 978-0-7190-6959-8 (pbk.)
Sculpture Today
by Judith Collins
Publisher: New York: Phaidon Press, 2014
ISBN: 9780714857633
Native American Art In the Twentieth Century
edited by W. Jackson Rushing, III
Publisher: New York: Routledge, 1999
ISBN: 13:978-0-415-13748-5 (pbk.)
Latin American Artists of the Twentieth Century
edited by Waldo Rasmussen, Fatima Bercht, and Elizabeth Ferrer
Publisher: New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.,1993
ISBN: 0-8109-6121-0
Radiance From the Waters
by Sylvia Ardyn Boone
Publisher: Yale University Press,1990
ISBN: 9780300048612
OPEN READING ROOM
Curated Reading List 002
by Terrence Trouillot
Titles on View in Gallery
Opening
December 10, 2022 5p
This list is a modest selection of books (some new and some oldies that I have returned to over the years) that have influenced or informed some of ways I’ve been thinking about art, particularly in last two years. These are titles that I have arrived at either by happenstance or, in most cases, have deliberately sought after. All are books that I’ve come to cherish tremendously during this COVID-19 era – a period in which so much has changed and so much has woefully stayed the same. Perhaps more pointedly, these publications track, for me, a kind of personal timeline (although not entirely linear) of my journey navigating the art world as Black art critic. They loosely draw a map of my own experiences and the ideas that have come to define my practice as an arts writer.
1971: A Year in the Life of Color
by Darby English
In 2015, I became BOMB Magazine’s Oral History fellow. There I was tasked in editing longform interviews with New York-based, African American artists who were otherwise left out of the canon. The first project I worked on was an oral history of the artist and dealer Peter Bradley. Bradley famously curated ‘The De Luxe Show’ in Houston in 1971, touted as the first racially integrated show in the United States. The show exhibited works from artists such as Sam Gilliam, Larry Poons, Al Loving and Larry Poons, among others. Darby’s 1971: A Year in the Life of Color was published the following year, and that moment felt special to me – that academic scholarship was finally being paid to a subject that I was not only completely vested in, but that I hadn’t been considered with such hefty interest before this time.
A Black Gaze: Artists Changing How We See
by Tina M. Campt
Published in 2021, this book essentially stumbled onto my desk. I was familiar with Campt’s work before this but was immediately pulled into her lucid prose on the Black gaze, non a strict counterpoint to the white gaze, but also distinctive action of how we see and experience Black suffering and joy. In the text, she describes it as “a gaze that is energizing and infusing Black popular culture in striking and unorthodox ways. Neither a depiction of Black folks or Black culture, it is a gaze that forces viewers to engage Blackness from a different and discomforting vantage point.”
Assembling a Black Counter Culture
by DeForrest Brown Jr.’s
A few years ago, I moderated a panel discussion between DeForrest Brown Jr. and my friend James Hoff on their collaborative practice. In that discussion, they spoke about Brown Jr.’s, at that time, forthcoming book on the history Black techno. When I got the advance copy of the book, I couldn’t put it down. Dense and tremendously researched, Assembling a Black Counter Culture is evidence of Brown Jr.’s far-reaching erudition as he builds a narrative that sees techno as at propellor for the Black working class in the US.
Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration
by Nicole R. Fleetwood
This book and the eponymous art exhibition presented at MoMA PS1 in 2020–21 are products of years of research by Rutgers University art history professor Nicole R. Fleetwood. In this text, Fleetwood coined the term “carceral aesthetics:, and developed a novel way of understanding the cultural production borne out of those directly and indirectly affected by the realties and conditions of mass incarceration. Her theoretical approach is groundbreaking, putting forth an anesthetic imaginary directly in line with politics of prison abolition.
PÒTOPRENS: The Urban Artists of Port-au-Prince
One of my fondest memories of the last few years was going to see the exhibition “PÒTOPRENS” at Pioneers works with my folks. Both my parents are from Haiti and the show offered a beautiful survey of contemporary art from the country’s capital of Port-au-Prince. This year Pioneer Works published a lovely catalogue commemorating the exhibition, edited by Leah Gordon and Joshua Jelly-Schapiro. The publication offers a wide selection of texts including interviews with artists and essays situating the work within larger and globalized context Caribbean and Black art.
The Sellout
by Paul Beatty
I’m not sure why I chose to add this book to this list or how exactly it has informed my thinking around art for the past few years, but it is a title that I find myself constantly returning to. Perhaps to be inspired or just to have a good laugh. Maybe because it’s just so fucking good. (I honestly can’t think of a better piece of literature that has come out since its publication date in 2015.) I first read The Sellout as part of a book club when the hardcover was first released. I remember it being one of the few books from our selection that I read in its entirety. (We ambitiously met once a week.) Beatty’s Dickensian novel follows the narrator ‘Bonbon’ (a Black man) who tries to reinstate slavery and segregation in his hometown lest it be unincorporated and forever erased from the map. The book is devilishly satirical and punches you in the face with piercing irony and wit. The Sellout, coincidentally, came out just shortly after the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson – a moment that had a significant impact on the way I started thinking and writing about art, specifically works that with abject imagery of Black death. Beatty’s book, at the time, was welcomed read – the perfect balance of dark humor and trenchant commentary that I desperately needed to cope with the ugliness.
Curated Reading List 002
by Terrence Trouillot
Titles on View in Gallery
Opening
December 10, 2022 5p
This list is a modest selection of books (some new and some oldies that I have returned to over the years) that have influenced or informed some of ways I’ve been thinking about art, particularly in last two years. These are titles that I have arrived at either by happenstance or, in most cases, have deliberately sought after. All are books that I’ve come to cherish tremendously during this COVID-19 era – a period in which so much has changed and so much has woefully stayed the same. Perhaps more pointedly, these publications track, for me, a kind of personal timeline (although not entirely linear) of my journey navigating the art world as Black art critic. They loosely draw a map of my own experiences and the ideas that have come to define my practice as an arts writer.
1971: A Year in the Life of Color
by Darby English
In 2015, I became BOMB Magazine’s Oral History fellow. There I was tasked in editing longform interviews with New York-based, African American artists who were otherwise left out of the canon. The first project I worked on was an oral history of the artist and dealer Peter Bradley. Bradley famously curated ‘The De Luxe Show’ in Houston in 1971, touted as the first racially integrated show in the United States. The show exhibited works from artists such as Sam Gilliam, Larry Poons, Al Loving and Larry Poons, among others. Darby’s 1971: A Year in the Life of Color was published the following year, and that moment felt special to me – that academic scholarship was finally being paid to a subject that I was not only completely vested in, but that I hadn’t been considered with such hefty interest before this time.
A Black Gaze: Artists Changing How We See
by Tina M. Campt
Published in 2021, this book essentially stumbled onto my desk. I was familiar with Campt’s work before this but was immediately pulled into her lucid prose on the Black gaze, non a strict counterpoint to the white gaze, but also distinctive action of how we see and experience Black suffering and joy. In the text, she describes it as “a gaze that is energizing and infusing Black popular culture in striking and unorthodox ways. Neither a depiction of Black folks or Black culture, it is a gaze that forces viewers to engage Blackness from a different and discomforting vantage point.”
Assembling a Black Counter Culture
by DeForrest Brown Jr.’s
A few years ago, I moderated a panel discussion between DeForrest Brown Jr. and my friend James Hoff on their collaborative practice. In that discussion, they spoke about Brown Jr.’s, at that time, forthcoming book on the history Black techno. When I got the advance copy of the book, I couldn’t put it down. Dense and tremendously researched, Assembling a Black Counter Culture is evidence of Brown Jr.’s far-reaching erudition as he builds a narrative that sees techno as at propellor for the Black working class in the US.
Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration
by Nicole R. Fleetwood
This book and the eponymous art exhibition presented at MoMA PS1 in 2020–21 are products of years of research by Rutgers University art history professor Nicole R. Fleetwood. In this text, Fleetwood coined the term “carceral aesthetics:, and developed a novel way of understanding the cultural production borne out of those directly and indirectly affected by the realties and conditions of mass incarceration. Her theoretical approach is groundbreaking, putting forth an anesthetic imaginary directly in line with politics of prison abolition.
PÒTOPRENS: The Urban Artists of Port-au-Prince
One of my fondest memories of the last few years was going to see the exhibition “PÒTOPRENS” at Pioneers works with my folks. Both my parents are from Haiti and the show offered a beautiful survey of contemporary art from the country’s capital of Port-au-Prince. This year Pioneer Works published a lovely catalogue commemorating the exhibition, edited by Leah Gordon and Joshua Jelly-Schapiro. The publication offers a wide selection of texts including interviews with artists and essays situating the work within larger and globalized context Caribbean and Black art.
The Sellout
by Paul Beatty
I’m not sure why I chose to add this book to this list or how exactly it has informed my thinking around art for the past few years, but it is a title that I find myself constantly returning to. Perhaps to be inspired or just to have a good laugh. Maybe because it’s just so fucking good. (I honestly can’t think of a better piece of literature that has come out since its publication date in 2015.) I first read The Sellout as part of a book club when the hardcover was first released. I remember it being one of the few books from our selection that I read in its entirety. (We ambitiously met once a week.) Beatty’s Dickensian novel follows the narrator ‘Bonbon’ (a Black man) who tries to reinstate slavery and segregation in his hometown lest it be unincorporated and forever erased from the map. The book is devilishly satirical and punches you in the face with piercing irony and wit. The Sellout, coincidentally, came out just shortly after the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson – a moment that had a significant impact on the way I started thinking and writing about art, specifically works that with abject imagery of Black death. Beatty’s book, at the time, was welcomed read – the perfect balance of dark humor and trenchant commentary that I desperately needed to cope with the ugliness.
Exhibition Views
